The Box

The hours of entertainment a simple box can provide...

More Trains and Celebration...

So one day before Jackson's birthday is John's dad's birthday, and two days after Jacksons, is my Grandma Gudeman's. So we went up to the Whistle Stop restaurant (in my parents hometown) for lunch to celebrate her birthday - which was awesome because the kids not only loved going out to eat with Grandma, but also loved the trains! 

Jackson ready to go in his conductor's hat.

Great Grandma with the kids that were able to come...

Crashing later that night...

Well, kind of crashing...

Birthday Continues...

So for Jackson's actual birthday weekend we wanted to do something fun as a family that Jackson would really enjoy. The next thing after automobiles that he loves is animals. So we decided to go to the Indpls Zoo for the day. It was so much fun! It was a beautiful day!

Right off the bat Jackson loved it - he was so excited to pet the sharks!

Note Abigail hanging back...we were concerned with how she would be, as she does NOT share Jackson's interest in animals. However, she loved it! Of course - she loved the fact all the animals were securely caged and she was not expected to touch. :)

For at least the first part of the day, this was Jackson's face - eyes wide, mouth hanging open. :) He was completely in awe the entire time!

Abigail thought this was funny - a Zebra named after Uncle Grant. 

The poor lion sleeping - just wanted to be left alone. 

Abigail's one animal that she really wanted to see was the Zebra.

The elephants put on a great show for us. 

The morning of his actual birthday...

Exciting Stuff!

It's so odd to me, but my kids absolutely love the process of the lawn being mowed. When our lawn is mowed, it's like a half hour-hour of free child care because they are completely entertained for the entire event - all the way to trimming and blowing/cleanup. They sit and watch and watch. It's so funny to me. :)

Here they are enjoying the show. :)

Olympic Spirit

I really enjoyed the Olympics this year. It was really fun to partake in the spirit of it with my kids. I enjoyed talking to Abigail about all the different countries and parts of the world. She has many friends and some family that either have lived/are living abroad, so she has some decent perspective for a 4 year old. 

I attempted some red, white and blue cupcakes to celebrate for both birthdays and the Olympics. 

I don't know how cute they actually looked, but they still tasted good. :)

Happy Birthday!!!!

Last weekend we had a plethora of birthday celebrations, kicking off with a party for my Mom on Friday night. We went to Darin and Arial's and celebrated her there.

Happy Birthday, Mom and Grandma!

There was an awesome rainbow!

The morning after...kids crashing on the couch :)

Then, Sunday we had a party for Jackson (a week early to try accommodate other family plans).

Jackson is obsessed with planes, trains and automobiles right now. :) We thought it was highly appropriate to have a Thomas theme. 

Three Musketeers

The cake turned out so cute! (I of course did not make it, but Marsh bakery did a great job! LOL)

"Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you!"

Jackson actually did pretty well attempting to blow out the candles himself!

Yummy!

We love birthday cake!

And the sugar is kicking in...

Present time!

He is still quite slow opening presents - much to the dismay of the older kiddos. :) They just can hardly stand it!

Because of his age and love of trains, we started a train set with him. We were blessed to have found an entire Thomas train set, complete with table, trunk, tons of tracks, buildings, etc. on Craigslist! 

As you can see and can probably imagine, there is A LOT of noise at our family gatherings. :)

Needless to say, that Monday morning after we were all moving pretty slowly. :)